Iran and its proxies are actively celebrating anti-Israel protests at U.S. universities, experts say, and the movement represents an organic, grassroots “change in attitude” among the public. claims.
“These are the mainstream and most important news agencies and websites in Iran that are reporting on this,” Dr. Saeed Ghaseminejad, Iran senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.
“They’re covering this issue in a very religious way, and as you can see, they definitely support it,” he said, referring to widespread protests on American college campuses.
Several Ivy League universities, including Columbia University, Harvard University, and Yale University, have faced anti-Israel protests that have intensified over the past week. Columbia University has adopted hybrid learning on its main campus due to safety concerns due to protests.
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The unrest spread to other universities, including the University of Texas at Austin, where anti-Israel protests escalated into arrests as Austin police and the Texas Department of Public Safety tried to maintain order. These protests have received considerable attention in Iran, with officials and media outlets providing intensive coverage and using them as evidence of growing anti-Israel sentiment in the United States.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather at the Columbia University encampment in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of New York City, USA, on Monday, April 22, 2024. Columbia University moved classes online after days of anti-Israel protests disrupted its New York City campus. Condemnation from the White House and City Hall. (Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdullahian expressed support for those who speak ill of Israel and for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He also said he was “deeply concerned and disgusted” by law enforcement’s response to the ongoing protests and subsequent mass arrests.
In a translated article posted by Ghaseminejad in a thread on social media platform “I urged them to do it,” he said. . ”
“According to images and reports from universities such as Yale and Harvard, students will denounce the genocide committed by the Israeli regime in Gaza and demand that academic societies sever ties with the Zionist regime. are flocking to these campuses.” This was reported by the Iranian newspaper Kayhan.
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“Harvard University students held up a large banner that read ‘Stop the Genocide in Gaza,'” the article continued. “Interestingly, students marched around campus carrying Palestinian flags and keffiyehs around their necks while speaking out against the crimes of the Zionist regime and the U.S. government’s support for these crimes.”
A broadcast on the Iranian news network Al-Ahram hailed the protests as evidence of “a broader shift in the attitudes of the American people, especially young people, toward their government’s policies and unconditional support for the Zionist regime.”
On Wednesday, April 24, 2024, state troopers arrested a man during a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas. (Jay Janner/American Politician)
“These changes are gradually impacting the approach of these universities, which have long been a source of power for this administration by facilitating their lobbying efforts in the United States,” the report claims. .
Mr. Ghaseminejad was born in Iran, but was abducted and imprisoned for his student protests and left the country in 2008 with a suspended sentence. He noted that some Middle Eastern news organizations were reporting on the unrest every day, several times a day, and were “closely monitoring” it.
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According to Stephen Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), some Iranian proxy leaders, including Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, have emphasized in recent speeches the importance of anti-Israel protests in the United States. It emphasizes that ) in Washington.
In an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Stalinsky praised Prime Minister Nasrallah’s “very influential” protests on March 13 and called them “irresponsible” against President Biden. “We should show respect to them,” he said.
On April 22, hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrators demonstrate in front of Sathergate on the University of California, Berkeley campus, holding tents in solidarity with Columbia University demonstrators demanding a permanent ceasefire in the war between Israel and Israel. set up a camp. And Gaza. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Prime Minister Nasrallah said the protest vote was “the most important means of pressure on the Biden administration” to influence changes in U.S. policy.
“It is no coincidence that the official statements of Hamas and major jihadist groups regarding the protests are nearly identical,” Stalinsky wrote. “This statement appears to be a talking point to put pressure on decision-makers in the United States and the West. It appears to be having an effect.”
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Stalinsky especially took cues from former Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine member Khalid Barakat, who organized “Resistance 101” and organized deliberate campaigns in which student groups pretended to be grassroots movements. expressed concern about the Course with Columbia University Apartheid Divest Student Group.
According to the Jerusalem Post, during a video call with a group of students, Barakat discussed “friends of Islamic Jihad” and cited Iran’s “strategic vision,” while his wife warned the students of the militant group’s actions. He urged them to clearly support the
This handout photo provided by Hezbollah’s media office on September 2, 2023 shows the Lebanese Shiite group meeting with Saleh al-Arli, deputy chief of the Palestinian Hamas movement, at an undisclosed location in Lebanon. Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah is pictured. (Hezbollah Media Office/AFP via Getty Images)
“He has frequent conversations with Hezbollah and Almanar TV, which…is illegal to broadcast in the United States and was previously available on satellite TV, but is now blocked,” Stalin said. Ski told FOX News Digital. The Hezbollah leader spoke in an interview on March 30 about Western support for the Palestinians against Israel, saying, “The majority of young Americans and Canadians… support armed resistance,” Stalinsky said. added.
Mr. Stalinsky also said that Mr. Barakat discussed how the curriculum influences student thinking, and that professors have a particular perspective that emphasizes a more empathetic perspective that drives students toward activism. He pointed out that he is promoting the
“I have a master’s degree in Middle East studies, but the problem is that I haven’t studied the Middle East,” he claimed. “It’s about who’s teaching about the Middle East.”
He pointed to the prevalence of the Student for Justice Movement in Palestine, which preys on the idea that university students should be involved in activism. But the agitators have also shown “a great deal of ignorance”, with some admitting that over the past six months they have sometimes not known what they were protesting.
“They are part of the incitement.” [the protests]” Stalinsky said. [do] this. “
